60 Fun Facts About Teddy Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was which number president of the United States?

He served from 1901 to 1909, first as McKinley's successor and then in his own right.

How old was Roosevelt when he became president, making him the youngest person ever to hold the office?

John F. Kennedy, at 43, remains the youngest person elected to it.

Roosevelt became president after the assassination of which predecessor?

He had been vice president for only six months, and was sworn in at the Ansley Wilcox House in Buffalo.

Which chronic illness plagued Roosevelt as a child and terrified his parents?

A family hike in the Alps in 1869 convinced him that hard exercise helped, the seed of what he later called "the strenuous life".

Roosevelt was born in 1858 in which US state?

The family home was at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan.

Which university did Roosevelt enter in 1876, graduating Phi Beta Kappa four years later?

He rowed, boxed, joined the Porcellian Club and was already a published ornithologist.

Roosevelt's 1882 book, which made his name as a historian, was about which conflict?

He began the research as a Harvard student, focusing on the role of the Navy.

On 14 February 1884, Roosevelt's first wife Alice and his mother died on the same day. Of what did Alice die?

She had given birth to their daughter Alice two days earlier; his mother died of typhoid. Roosevelt wrote in his diary, "The light has gone out of my life."

After those deaths, Roosevelt recovered by running a cattle ranch in which territory?

He built Elkhorn Ranch 35 miles north of Medora, learned to rope and ride western style, and once hunted down three boat thieves as a deputy sheriff.

In 1886 Roosevelt married his childhood friend Edith Kermit Carow in which city?

The wedding was at St George's, Hanover Square; the couple went on to have five children.

In 1895 Roosevelt took a job in New York City heading which body?

Mayor William Strong offered him the post; he had already been introduced to the city's slums by the journalist Jacob Riis.

Which post did Roosevelt resign in 1898 to go and fight in the Spanish-American War?

He had helped plan the naval war against Spain from that desk before deciding he wanted to see battle himself.

The Rough Riders were the nickname of which unit?

It was one of three volunteer cavalry regiments raised in 1898 and the only one to see combat; it was also called "Wood's Weary Walkers".

Who was the first commander of the Rough Riders, with Roosevelt as his second in command?

Roosevelt formed the regiment with him; its ranks mixed Ivy Leaguers, cowboys, miners and sheriffs.

During the famous charge in Cuba on 1 July 1898, Roosevelt was the only soldier on horseback up which slope?

He had to walk the last stretch after his horse got tangled in barbed wire; he called it "the great day of my life".

Roosevelt is the only president to have received which military decoration, awarded posthumously in 2001?

His commanders had recommended him for it in 1898, but the effort was tainted by his own lobbying; Bill Clinton finally presented it.

Returning from Cuba a war hero, Roosevelt was elected to which office in 1898?

The state party bosses disliked his reform agenda so much they pushed him onto McKinley's ticket in 1900 to get rid of him.

Complete Roosevelt's famous aphorism, first publicised in September 1901: "Speak softly and..."

The full line ends "and you will go far"; it became the label for his entire foreign policy.

What did Roosevelt call his domestic programme of fairness, trust-busting and pure food and drugs?

His antitrust litigation earned him a second nickname, "the Trust Buster".

Roosevelt's first big antitrust case broke up Northern Securities, a monopoly in which industry?

He brought 44 antitrust suits in all, and many were shocked that an unelected president would take on J. P. Morgan.

Which 1906 Upton Sinclair novel galvanised support for the Meat Inspection Act?

The laws banned misleading labels, harmful preservatives and falsely labelled food and drugs.

Roosevelt won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end of which war?

He was the first non-European to win any Nobel Prize; the treaty was signed at Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Why did Roosevelt choose Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to host the 1905 peace talks?

The talks began in August and he wanted to spare the delegates a sweltering Washington summer.

The Panama Canal route Roosevelt backed ran through territory that in 1903 belonged to which country?

When that government rejected the treaty, a Panamanian rebellion, supported by Roosevelt, succeeded and a new treaty was signed in 1903.

Where did Roosevelt go in November 1906 on the first official presidential trip abroad?

The 17-day trip included a visit to the canal worksite.

How many battleships made up the Great White Fleet Roosevelt sent around the world in 1907-09?

They were split into two squadrons and got their name from the stark white paint on their hulls.

Roughly how much land did Roosevelt place under federal protection as president?

That included five national parks, 18 national monuments, 150 national forests and the first 51 bird reserves.

Which Wyoming landmark did Roosevelt make the first US national monument in September 1906?

He used the brand-new Antiquities Act, which lets presidents proclaim monuments without Congress.

In 1903 Roosevelt created the first national wildlife refuge, Pelican Island, in which state?

He did it by executive order after bird advocates visited him at home to plead for the pelicans.

The teddy bear was named after Roosevelt following a hunting trip in 1902 in which state?

He refused to shoot a captured bear as unsportsmanlike; Clifford Berryman's Washington Post cartoon of the scene did the rest.

Which New York toymaker named the teddy bear after the president?

Richard Steiff was developing a similar bear in Germany at almost exactly the same time.

Which Black leader did Roosevelt invite to a White House dinner in 1901, provoking Southern outrage?

He planned more such dinners but backed off to keep white Southern political support.

Roosevelt hand-picked which Secretary of War to succeed him as president in 1908?

Within four years he had fallen out with his protégé so badly that he ran against him.

After leaving office in 1909, Roosevelt spent a year collecting specimens on which continent?

The party landed at Mombasa and followed the Nile to Khartoum, financed partly by Andrew Carnegie, hunting for the Smithsonian.

In which European city did Roosevelt deliver his 1910 "Man in the Arena" speech?

The speech, formally titled Citizenship in a Republic, was given at the Sorbonne on 23 April 1910.

In October 1910 Roosevelt became the first US president to do what?

He stayed up for four minutes in a Wright brothers-designed craft.

What was the popular name of the Progressive movement Roosevelt led into the 1912 election?

The split with Taft handed the election to Woodrow Wilson.

In which city was Roosevelt shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank while campaigning on 14 October 1912?

Schrank believed McKinley's ghost had ordered the killing; Roosevelt shouted for the crowd not to harm him.

What slowed the 1912 assassin's bullet before it lodged in Roosevelt's chest?

He then delivered a 90-minute speech with blood seeping into his shirt before accepting medical help.

How long did Roosevelt speak after being shot in 1912?

Doctors decided the bullet was safer left in place, and he carried it in his chest muscle for the rest of his life.

What did Roosevelt tell a reporter after the shooting, giving his party its nickname?

Taft and Wilson both suspended their campaigns until he was back on the trail two weeks later.

In 1913-14 Roosevelt nearly died exploring a Brazilian waterway then known by what name?

It was renamed the Roosevelt River; his son Kermit and the explorer Cândido Rondon were on the expedition.

Roosevelt's youngest son Quentin was killed in 1918 serving as what?

He was shot down over France on Bastille Day, having downed one German aircraft himself.

What was the name of Roosevelt's home near Oyster Bay, Long Island, where he died in 1919?

He died there in his sleep of a pulmonary embolism, aged 60; his son Archibald cabled his siblings, "The old lion is dead."

Roosevelt's last words were addressed to his servant James Amos and asked him to do what?

Vice President Thomas Marshall said death had to take him sleeping, "for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight".

Roosevelt is one of four presidents carved into which mountain?

He shares the granite with Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln; the memorial was designed in 1927.

Which injury did Roosevelt suffer while boxing as president, a fact hidden for years?

He then took up jiu-jitsu with Yoshitsugu Yamashita and pushed for American soldiers to learn it.

Roosevelt said of his eldest daughter that he could either run the country or do what?

"Princess Alice" smoked on the White House roof, kept a pet snake and buried a voodoo doll of Nellie Taft in the yard.

Which actor played a wax Roosevelt that comes to life in Night at the Museum?

Roosevelt also leads the American civilization in the video game Civilization VI.

How many books did Roosevelt write over his lifetime?

His most ambitious was the four-volume The Winning of the West.

What is the 1904 addition to the Monroe Doctrine claiming a US right to intervene in Latin America called?

It came out of the Venezuelan crisis of 1902-03 and fit his big-stick approach.

In his 1910 Nobel lecture, Roosevelt proposed that the great powers form what?

It anticipated Wilson's League of Nations, which Roosevelt would later attack.

Where did Roosevelt study law after giving up plans to study natural science?

He moved back into his family's New York home while studying, and never finished the degree, entering politics instead.

Which labor candidate did Roosevelt face when he ran for New York mayor in 1886?

Democrat Abram Hewitt won with 41% as many Republicans, fearing George's radical policies, abandoned Roosevelt.

Which organisation did Roosevelt found to conserve large game animals and their habitats?

Founded in 1887, the club grew out of Roosevelt's ranching years in the Dakota Badlands.

To which federal body did President Harrison appoint Roosevelt in 1889?

The appointment came on the insistence of Henry Cabot Lodge; Roosevelt served there until 1895, proving a 'bull in a china shop'.

Whose death in November 1899 opened the vice-presidential spot Roosevelt filled in 1900?

New York boss Thomas Platt pushed Roosevelt onto the ticket to get him out of the governorship; his six months as VP were 'uneventful and boring'.

Who was the Democratic nominee Roosevelt defeated in the 1904 presidential election?

With Platt's power waning, Roosevelt faced little opposition for the nomination and won the general election easily.

Which 1906 Roosevelt speech term came to describe journalists making wild charges?

Roosevelt himself was rarely the target of such reporting, but the label stuck to the era's investigative press.

Which of Roosevelt's sons telegraphed his siblings 'The old lion is dead' in 1919?

Vice President Thomas Marshall added that 'Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.'